Disclaimer: Characters from RWBY are owned by Roosterteeth. I own no characters except the OCs. Please enjoy the story.

Forgotten Legacy

By Deteriorated

The moon's light glistens through the fragments of clouds, illuminating the grimly lighted forest. Filled with wildlife, and vile nightstalkers searching the land for prey and shelter. In this land, there were no boundaries. The monsters were free to roam as much as they want, no humans to get in their way. The land was populated with them, a number of monsters averaging over thousands and thousands.

That is until the hunters came, and built a facility. Scientific research to study and understand the monsters' way of living, to give knowledge and advantages to the hunters to ensure men's victory over the beasts. But the facility now lays abandoned, after a long forgotten accident. The funding to the research facility was closed, all the papers and work biologists have worked so hard for were left behind, and the area was sealed off from trespassers. To be forgotten by history.

However, a recent discovery shows that the facility holds mass amount of Dust behind. So much that it is now looked upon as a goldmine, an opportunity that is far more valuable to leave behind.

The Beacon Academy has launched an excavation to retrieve the Dust, but due to the area being filled with monsters they have also released a team of students to help further advance their training and education. Team RWBY must help clear the facility of monsters to allow the excavators to retrieve the Dust.

But what more will they find in the facility of forgotten research?

Chapter 1

"The area is within sight, we are landing in the approximate of 10 minutes. Please remain seated at all times before arriving at our destination." ordered the pilot of the airship.

"Try telling that to Yang and Ruby..." Blake commented as she watches the girls warming up and goofing around. Weiss looks away from the window to see them and sighs, the two siblings were more than energetic. It has been a while since their last mission, the school felt it was more appropriate for the girls to take breaks from missions and get to learning.

Yang and Ruby obviously didn't like the idea.

"Oh man I can't wait! How many monsters do you think there'll be!? Do you think they're going to let us keep some of the Dust as souvenirs?" Ruby squealed to her big sister, Yang, "My heart is racing by just thinking about it!"

"I know right! An abandoned facility probably filled with legendary creatures that'll make us the Academy's heroes!" Yang grinned.

"You do know the Academy would never let us anywhere near it if it does contain such." Weiss scowled.

Yang sighs, "Of course I know that! It would just be great if once they forgot about some big tough guy to let us take down and get extra credit for it!"

"I'm more concern about returning 'alive' than to be a monster's lunch."

Yang stomped her foot and pouted at Blake as Ruby quietly giggles at her sister's frustration. The airshop suddenly stopped in midair, causing the two girls to fall over and hit their heads against the wall. Blake and Weiss tries not to smile or laugh as the sisters groans in pain. "Looks like we're here..." said Ruby as she rubs her head.

The airship carefully descends to the landing point with several guards surveying the area to prevent any unwelcome trespassers. The door opens up to allow the girls to exit the ship. Ruby stares in awe at the surrounding forest trying to engulf the facility with it's vines and greens.

"Looks like Mother Nature wants this land back." Blake noticed the untamed plants growing around the walls. "Well she can have it once we're done here," Yang grinned, "Alright, first things first! The Headmaster said that we need to talk to the big guy?"

"You don't have to look far." said a man approaching the girls. "I'm the head of security, so you're the ones we're suppose to wait for?" the man questioned as he scratches his chin at them.

"That's right! Team RWBY at your service!" Ruby saluted.

The Head of Security chuckled, "No offense, but I was expecting an older group..."

"Hey! We're more than capable of handling ourselves!" Yang pounded her chest at him.

"Heh, well you girls ARE students of the Beacon Academy, so I guess I shouldn't be too quick to judge. We cleared a few monsters in the front entrance, but we don't know how many there are inside." the man informed.

"Can you tell us what we're facing?" Blake asked the man politely.

"Well just arachnes. The queen seems to be either missing or dead, considering the way they act. So you'll just be handling rogues."

Yang groans disappointingly, "We don't even get to fight the Queen? Man, this mission is now becoming more of a drag."

"Oh c'mon sis, at least we're still able to fight some creatures." Ruby tried to reassure Yang but the easily-excited student crossed her arms in response. The head of security scratches his head with an awkward smile. "Oh, here's something for you girls." the man offered each of them an earphone, "The place is bigger than it looks on the outside, so use these to get in touch while you're cleaning out the place-"

"Cleaning out? Are you treating us like exterminators?" Weiss frowned.

"N-no, I didn't mean..."

"Don't mind her, she usually gets like this when someone doesn't get her beauty sleep." Blake joked, now receiving the attention from the cold princess. Ruby and Yang laughs as Weiss physically restrain herself from trying to attack her teammate. The man shook his head with a smile and walked away from the group, "These students get weirder and weirder by the year..."

The team prepares themselves to enter, but Ruby stood out as the other three begin to enter the building. "Hey, Ruby! You're coming?" Yang called out. The girl nodded in response, "Just a sec..." she replies and looks at the dark sky. "This mission seems simple enough, but why am I having doubts?" Ruby thought to herself then runs ahead to catch up with her teammates.

The girls made it inside the entrance area, looking like what anything would if left abandoned and untreated for years. The plants grew through the broken windows allowing it to spread to other areas, tiles were knocked down and shattered to pieces, and three dead arachnes lays on the ground in front of the team. Ruby groans in disgust at the sight of the blighted creatures. "Giant spiders are so gross! If this place was packed with wolves it would be no problem..."

Blake kneels down to observe the creatures carefully, "If it's true what they said about these creatures not having a queen then it shouldn't be hard to take them down."

Yang looks around the area and spotted a double door with a keypad. Ruby follows her as Yang approaches the doorway, observing it carefully. Her younger sister taps the nonfunctional keypad, "I guess we need a password." she suggested.

"Password, eh?" Yang cast a malicious grin. She moves back her right arm as her bracelet expanded and covers her hand and forearm into a gauntlet. "How about open sesame!?" the girl shouts as she punches the door with a full shotgun blast. Ruby covers her ears as the doors fly off and crashes against the floor followed by a long scraping noise. She looks up and smiles at her amazing sister, "Nice one."

"It is, isn't it?" Yang grinned as she reflects back at her joke. Weiss and Blake seems to be a bit annoyed by the lack of caution the girls are taking, "Might as well give the creatures a ten second head-start before we storm into their nest." Blake muttered.

The gang walks through the hallways with their weapons in hand, ready to take on any surprise attacks, ambushes, or any lost-wondering spiders aggravated but determined to kill on sight.

After 20 minutes of wandering around, they found nothing.

"Okay, this BITES!" Yang shouted into the hallways, hoping her voice would echo through the building to at least stir something.

Weiss isn't as happy as she is by staring against the walls, "All this for nothing..." she groaned. Blake remain perfectly patient, as for Ruby who forcefully swings her scythe and slams it to the ground out of frustration. "We haven't even find a trace of Dust, let alone a storage." Weiss reminded the girls of their primary objective, yet they were still oblivious to her saying.

The gang's earphones projected a low static as a signal then the head of security's voice called out, "How's it looking there, girls? Place cleared yet?"

"Yeah, only if there were ANYTHING lurking in these halls!" Yang shouted into her mic, as the man at the other end pulls it away from his ear.

"That's strange... maybe they went to a lower ground after sensing a disturbance. Do any of you may know the reason of that?" the man asked.

The three students cast their glare at Ms. Yellow-Doorbuster, leaving her to reply, "Ahh... Maybe it was the airship?" Yang avoided the blame. There was a short awkward silence from the man until he sighs, continuing the conversation. One of the guardsman came to him with a digital pad with the radar of the building's layout.

"Whoa, this definitely looks way bigger than the outside... Anyway, we're detecting movement from below. Looks like a basement floor." the man informed.

"Thanks, we'll take it from here." Blake replied, "Now all we need is to find a way to get down there."

"We did pass by a couple of elevators." Ruby noted as she points down the hallway.

"Yeah, but what are the chances of the electricity still-"

Ding!

Blake, Yang, and Ruby paused and slowly turn their heads to Weiss, standing near the elevator doorway opened with her finger still on the panel. She looks back at them with a confused expression on her face, "What?"

"Did you actually think... there was still energy in this building?" Yang pointed out, "That you casually just press the button without any other thought?"

"Well I-"

"Works for me!" Ruby gleefully walks past the girls and stands in the center of elevator. Yang and Blake looks at each other and shrugs as they enter it with Weiss behind them. As the door closes, a thought suddenly came to Yang as she says "Wait a minute! Isn't going inside a rusted elevator a hazard-"

The sounds of steel and cords snapping violently interrupted her as the elevator starts sliding down the shaft with sparks flying everywhere. The elevator doors are still opened, showing multiple floors passing by as it descends with greater speed.

"WHAT DO WE DO!?" Ruby yelled over the harsh sound of scraping metal.

"Calm down!" Blake ordered, "We'll get out of this! Yang, blast the emergency ceiling door out with your gauntlets!"

Yang confirmed with a nod, not feeling like this would be a good time to argue back at her for ordering her around. She pulls back her right arm aiming directly at the trapdoor and fires a projectile blasting it off it's hinges. Blake aims her Gambol Shroud with her black ribbon attached and launches the chain scythe through the exit. She quickly pulls back at the right time, pressing the trigger on the pistol to increase it's velocity by the recoil to soar further in the air until it loops down around a loose piece of metal sticking out of the wall.

"Grab on!" Blake yelled as her body zooms out of the elevator with the girls grabbing each other's feet one by one. The four girls made it out safely as the elevator finally crashes with an explosion.

"Why does it always have to have explosions?" Yang mutters as held onto Blake's left leg with both of her arms. Below her, Weiss holds onto her right leg with one arm while embarrassingly trying to use the other one to pull up her skirt as it's being dragged down by the little red girl hugging around her waist, refusing to open her eyes.

"Phew... didn't that would work."

"WHAT?!"

{}Meanwhile{}

"We lost track of the girls, sir." one of the guardsman acknowledged the head of security.

"What?! How could we lose them? They should still be in the building's radius!"

"Actually sir, it doesn't look like they wondered away... more like that they just... fell."

"Fell?!" the man baffled. He knows the the building has a few basement floors but there can't be more than what the Academy had diagrammed for them. It could be possible that the girls have found an old cave dug out by the arachnes. This would not end well for the man's career and the girls' lives. "Contact the Academy for a rescue team, I'm not gonna risk their lives just for a large pile of Dust."

"Roger, sir. Sending alert to the-"

"Unidentified aircraft spotted!" a guard shouted, pointing at a unmarked airship flying to their direction. The Head of Security cursed under his breath and yelled orders at his men, "Positions, men! Do not fire upon unless the enemy is hostile!"

The security divided into squads and takes battle positions as the airship hovers above them. A guardsman ran to the Captain and gave him a megaphone, "Attention, trespassers! You are interfering with the Academy's business! Please leave or we'll be force to arrest and prosecuted!"

The airship stays there making no response to the man's word. The Captain lowers the megaphone as he is about to order fire but the ship suddenly opens up the cargo hold, revealing two men walking along the ramp with one of them holding onto the pole and the other jumps down and landed carefully. All weapons draws on the mysterious stranger kneeling down from the fall then rises up to meet them. The man looks younger than the Captain had thought he'd be. The stranger wears a short sleeve white/gray coat with matching long pants at the bottom. The coat is zipped open revealing an undershirt with sleeves longer than the coat's. He has a short combed white hair, complimenting his blue eyes but his smile shows a strange ominous feeling. The Captain recognizes these kind of people, the person in front of him is a mercenary.

"What's up?" the young man greeted them.

"Citizen you are trespassing in this facility, I will not repeat myself for the third time. Please leave." the Captain demanded.

The mercenary crossed his arms with a cocky grin, "Trespassing? Last I check: This building was abandoned. All the funding went away and the ownership to it is long gone. You guys are as much of a trespasser to it as I am."

The Captain clenched his teeth against the mercenary. This one's the same as the rest, a stubborn smart alack that doesn't know the meaning of the word, no. "Our business here is official with the Beacon Academy. This is your last chance, leave now or face the consequences." the Captain threatened.

"Well, that's a pity." the mercenary replied, stroking his chin as he acts disappointed. The young man looks up at the platform where the taller man is hanging by the airship. The mercenary's eyes must have send an inaudible message to the other stranger as their faces seem to come to an understanding. The mercenary suddenly then let out a loud whistle, signaling the airship.

A strange package was launched out of the ship and landed perfectly still next to the mercenary, drawing more attention from the guards than ever before.

"It seems that I haven't introduced myself," the young man spoke as he rest his hand on top of package's valve, "I go by many names, some would stick for a while as others just wilts away." The valve let out a low creaking noise as the mercenary spins it to loosen the lid, "I used to have a family name, but I was too young to remember. It's what the orphanage does to you." He pointed at his own head with his left hand as the right one tosses the valve lid away. He then plunges his whole arm inside laughing to himself, "Instead, I gave myself a name. Something I was better known for."

The mercenary pulls out his right arm revealing a large armored gauntlet, a Cestus. The weapon is detailed with silver and grey styles of a lion's mane, at the end of it where it sticks out from the elbow area is what looks like thrusters of a rocket launcher.

"The name's Dante, the Inferno!" the mercenary cries out as the thrusters fires and launches him at the guardsmen with incredible velocity. The men barely had time to act as Dante appears in front of them and slams the cestus to the ground, creating an impact knocking all the men off their feet. The Captain landed to the ground with a hard thud but immediately jumps back to his feet, "Fire!" he yelled out.

The mercenary was caught off guard as two men, each holding a RPG, positioned in the trees of the surrounding revealed themselves. One of them fired at Dante from left side as what seem to be a successful preemptive strike but the cocky child grins and fires the cestus's thruster and catches the rocket as the two forces clashed but no sign of collision.

The other guard fires a rocket directly behind the mercenary, but was somehow separated in two and flies by Dante as a shadow jumps in behind him.

"Figures you would jump in!" Dante grunted with displeasure.

"I'm done watching, finish it already." the shadowed man snapped.

"Fine!" Dante smirked as he jerks the cestus and redirects the rocket towards the man positioned behind him. The shadowed stranger pulls out a bow and pulls back a dark, red glowing arrow and fires at the man in front of them. The Captain's eardrum ruptured as both the arrow and the rocket exploded together at opposite ends of the landing point entrance.

Dante turns his attention to him and starts in a slow walk, "Now that wasn't very nice, IS IT?!" he growled as the thrusters kicks in again delivering a crushing impact to the Captain's stomach, crashing against the wall with a sickening sound of his bones cracking. The guardsman spat out blood and fell to the ground like a ragdoll as Dante pulls the massive gauntlet away from him.

He kneels down and checks his pulse with his other free arm. "Still alive... tough little bastard..." Dante commented with new found respect for the old man. He stood up and signals the airship to land. The doors opened to let out the mercenaries to gather the unconscious men and restrain them.

Dante looks at the old facility, not as wealthy looking for a gold digger like him to salvage but he's not the type of guy to judge a book by it's cover. He turns around as the shadowed stranger arrives carrying two men over his shoulders, singed but still breathing from the attacks.

"What exactly was the purpose of that performance?" the man scowled as he carefully laid the two guardsman down.

"Hey give me a break. You said this place would be only inhabited by monsters. Last I check, they don't carry automatic weapons and rocket launchers." Dante shrugged, "And it's not everyday I get a Hunter hiring me as a bodyguard-"

"Ex-hunter." the man corrected with a heavy emphasis, "And I'm not here to be impressed."

"Heh, I guess not. It's not really professional for me to question my employers but you promised full share to the valuable loot inside plus the payment you already gave us, nothing profitable in return for you... you knew there would be guards..." Dante frowned.

"There was a rumor of an academy planning to excavate the facility shortly after I found it's coordinates. I was expecting other Hunters to be here, but I guess they either haven't arrived yet." the man confessed calmly.

"Devious... I like that! You may be retired, but you hunters and huntresses are as fearful in the stories they tell to the fauna orphans." Dante grinned.

The man turns away from his attention feeling needless to continue talking. He looks down at the unconscious squad then at his own hired men, "Check them for any fatal injuries or wounds, make sure they are still breathing." he ordered. This took them by surprise, a few of them looks at Dante with confused expressions. The white hair mercenary just shrugs.

"Eh, what?" one of the lackeys spoke.

The Ex-Hunter pulls out his Bow as both point ends folds over and closes into a blade, a black hilt pops out for him to hold on to and press the sword against the fool's throat.

"Did I stutter?" he growled.

The lackey disappears then reappears holding a large medical kit in arm while saluting in a military fashion with the other. "No sir!" he cried with his voice high pitched with fear.

Dante amusingly chuckles to himself as the Ex-Hunter walks away and enters the building. "Do what you want, Dante. But be sure to stay clear of me, it's best for me to be alone." the man said as he disappears from view of the darkness in the building.

"Interesting fellow." Dante noted, "Not many of them left..."

{}Ruby{}

"Man, this place is giving me the creeps..." Ruby mutters as she walks through the dark hallways, clinging Crescent Rose to her chest like a child holding a teddy bear.

After the elevator event, the team thought it would be a good idea to split up to cover more ground. Ruby, at first, was fearless and willing to finally slay some monsters but now without her friends to explore the strange building alone, she didn't know what to really expect.

"I-I'll be fine... I just need to take things nice and-waa!" the girl screeched as she fell over a piece of metal and bumped her head to the ground. "Ow..." she moaned in pain, the girl looks at her feet and notice the metal appears to be a door. She looks behind her and spotted a double doorway, with the other half of the door still in positioned but heavily damaged. The curious red riding hood got up and peeked inside.

"It's too dark! Where's the lights when you need them..." Ruby blindly rubbing her hands against the wall until it waves over a lever, pulling it down. The area flashes up one by one by the light panels, illuminating the room. Ruby's eyes widened in surprise to see herself in front of her. She jumps back in and notice she's standing in front of what appears to be a mirror.

"What the...?" the girl looks around and spotted many more mirrors symmetric to each other on both left and right side of the large hallway. Next to the mirrors are doorways leading to small rooms, each with a bed, a small desk, and an obvious security camera positioned to look at the entire room area. Each of them are also labeled with the name: Subject and a number. This doesn't look like a holding area for monsters or a resting place for scientists.

Ruby walks through the doorways of each of the holding rooms until her eye caught a dark stain on one of the walls and stopped. She leaned through the doorway to get a better look of it, she can tell it use to be some sort of liquid caked on the wall. She then realized, the details of the dried liquid staining from the wall to the ground is blood...

Human blood...

"What kind of a place is this?!" she shouted.

Bang!

The girl jumps back as she hears a loud noise, followed by what appears to be tapping noises. "Y-Yang? Weiss? Blake?" she called out, hoping it was either of them trying to scare her so she can punch them in the face.

Instead, a large spider drops down in front of her screeching with it's venom dripping fangs and lunges at her. Ruby retaliates by taking out her Crescent Rose just in time and slices the creature in half. More arachnes emerged from the other holding rooms and charges at Ruby one by one, however the student easily spins around slicing the monsters as they come. "Ew! Ew! Ew! Get away!" she screams at the monsters.

One of them jumps back turn around as another lunges at Ruby only to get sliced in half, the arachne then fires a web hitting her directly in the face and covered her eyes. The monsters then swarms on her until she fell against the ground then pulls her away to their direction. "Let go of me!" she cries as Ruby tries to swat them away with her scythe but providing no effect. In desperation, Ruby pinned her blade against the ground to stop the spiders from pulling her but their grip was much stronger than her's as her hand finally let go of the scythe.

"YANG!" the girl screamed as she was pulled into the darkness with the monsters.

To be continued...